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Every business hopes to build relationships with existing customers and potential ones. If you can maintain these relationships, and even scale them up, your business can thrive for a long time. Online connectivity brings about new and affordable ways to reach customers. However, as your customer base increases, so does your customer data. One way to hold all this information in an organized and accessible platform is through a customer relationship management (CRM) software.
If you are looking for the right CRM solution for your business, you can choose from more than a hundred options. To help you narrow it down, we compare two systems that have already helped many companies, big and small. This Zoho CRM vs. Freshsales CRM comparison will look at some of their common and most usable features that may aid in your selection.
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Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is one of the earliest products from the Zoho Corporation. The company was founded in 1996, and it launched its CRM product in 2005. Since then, they have built more online products, and now offer over 40 applications. The company has remained private and profitable, and now has several sales and development offices around the world. In 2019, it registered over 50 million users, and remains a favorite software by many.
Aside from its notable lead management and sales force automation capabilities, it also has other tools and features:
- Omnichannel communication
- Analytics
- Predictive sales and intelligence
- Marketing automation
- Team collaboration
- Customization
- Mobile apps, and more.
These features will help you and your sales team access customer data from a central source that will be indispensable as you give customers an excellent experience.
Freshsales CRM
Freshsales CRM is a product of Freshworks Inc., a San Mateo, California company founded in 2010. Its flagship product is Freshdesk, a popular online helpdesk software launched in 2011. As the company began to grow its customer base, it realized the need for a simpler CRM software that helps achieve business goals while simplifying the work of its employees. With continued investment funds coming in, it developed its own CRM, which launched in 2016. The company continues to perform positively, now serves over 150,000 organizations worldwide, and has raised almost $400 million in investment funds. The most recent funding round resulted in the company’s valuation at $3.5 billion.
Your sales team can have the advantage of using modern tools built in the software, such as:
- Comprehensive customer profile from a single screen
- Automatic capture of information from web visits
- Intelligence-based lead scoring
- Visual sales pipeline
- Drag-and-drop interface
- Event tracking
- Mobile apps, and more.
Feature comparison
Multi-channel Communication
Zoho CRM allows you to connect with your leads and customers through multiple channels, so your customers can interact with your business in more ways than one. You can connect your email client to the software and send emails from within your CRM. You will have full history of your correspondence, get metrics and reports for your emails and templates, and be notified when an email is opened. You can also integrate the software with telephony service apps and providers to make calls, log them, and view customer info on one screen. Zoho CRM can connect to social media platforms, allow your team to chat with customers, or catch leads from websites using web forms. You can also create self-serve web portals, or hold web conferences.
Freshsales CRM has a built-in phone so you can make customer calls within the software. You can also make it easy for customers to call by buying local or toll-free numbers and assigning them to your team. Take notes during your conversation within the app, so you can start from where you left off the next time you call. The entire conversation history per customer will be available, and calls will be logged automatically. You can record a personalized voicemail message, too. Email client sync is possible, so you can send emails from either tool, and see them in the sent mail folders of both. You can also get metrics from templates, email opens, and clicks.
Also read: How to Encourage CRM Adoption Among Your Sales Force
Sales automation
Lead management in Zoho CRM lets you capture leads, automate the scoring, and help you identify which ones are ready to convert. Web forms collect more information from online leads, so you can follow up through a variety of communication channels. It provides you a snapshot of all your deals and their stages, and advanced filters and sorting will help you focus on those that need your attention. The Zoho contact management tools give you real-time customer insights. It works with many help desk applications, so you can associate tickets with your sales data to quickly resolve issues. When following up on a lead or making an update, workflow automation makes it easy for your team to complete the task because client or lead information is centrally located.
By giving you a complete view of customers on one screen, Freshsales CRM can help you engage in a more personalized way. Details such as conversations, deals, touchpoints, tasks, and interactions are some of the data available on its contact management. Freshsales scores leads based on data in customer profiles and engagement levels. It automatically enriches customer profile data from publicly available information such as social sites, as well, so the sales team can reduce their research time. You can segment teams by territory and auto-assign leads. From within the software, you can make appointments, schedule meetings, create tasks, and share files with the team.
Reports and analytics
Zoho CRM provides real-time reporting based on data from sales trends, marketing campaigns, activity reports, team performance, and others. You can choose from standard reports or create custom dashboards. Make use of charts to display information at a glance. It has an Anomaly Detector that can automatically compare actuals with predicted, and lets you know of any deviations. You can compare a variety of metrics across multiple modules, set targets, and track numbers in your pipeline.
Freshsales CRM has default reports you can customize. You can set up a simple report or use advanced logic, use summaries or a matrix, and choose from several chart types to display your data. Visual sales reports allow you to monitor progress easily with graphical tables and charts. Analyze revenue metrics whether by source, sales rep, or territory, so you can further refine campaigns, acknowledge performers, and focus on specific areas. It also has dashboards and scheduled reporting.
Conclusion
You can try either software for free for a limited time, 15 days for Zoho CRM, and 21 days for Freshsales CRM, to help you get a better feel of the software. Each software can integrate seamlessly with apps from its own company, but also with third-party providers. Also, both solutions extend their functionality with native mobile apps on iOS and Android platforms.
Want more CRM software options? Use our Product Selection Tool to request a free shortlist of the best CRM software for your needs.